Ag Bullet stamped her ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint with a powerful victory over the boys in the GI Jaipur Stakes at Saratoga Sunday. The race had originally been scheduled for the loaded GI Belmont Stakes card, but was moved to Sunday after heavy rains hit the upstate track Saturday. The transfer allowed jockey John Velazquez to pick up the mount from Flavien Prat, who was in Kentucky to ride Final Gambit in the GIII Matt Winn Stakes Sunday.
Sent off at 5-2, Ag Bullet broke in tandem with Coppola (Into Mischief) just to her outside and she settled just off that foe through an opening quarter in :22.52. The gray mare rolled up to engage the longshot pacesetter entering the straight, surged to the lead with a furlong to run and sailed clear to the wire.
“Man, it was easy,” Velazquez said. “She behaved so well in the gate. They told me she was a little bit nervous and bad at the gate. But man, she was so good, did everything perfect. Broke well, like we were expecting to break. One speed goes and I sat right off of them or third. She allowed me to sit right off of them and when I asked her to go, she was there for me. It was pretty easy.”
Of the result, winning trainer Richard Baltas said, “Over the moon. It's been an up and down thing with this filly. She was overachieving last year. We tried to get the Grade I and were second, third and third, and now she's got a Grade I win and she's a very valuable filly.”
Ag Bullet, winner of the GIII Monrovia Stakes down the hill at Santa Anita last April and the GII Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Sprint in August, was a narrowly beaten third in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint before stretching out to a mile to finish third after setting the pace in the Dec. 1 GI Matriarch Stakes–both over the Del Mar course which will host the Breeders' Cup in November.
Ag Bullet was a troubled seventh in her lone previous 2025 outing in the May 2 GIII Unbridled Sidney Stakes.
“I'm going to run her in Kentucky Downs in the race she won last year,” Baltas said of a return to the GII Ladies Turf Sprint. “Maybe she is a five-and-a-half [furlong] horse. I always wanted to stretch her out to six and a half [or] a mile, but she might be better sprinting. We could run her one more time [other than Kentucky Downs before the Breeders' Cup], but I'm not in any rush.”
Pedigree Notes:
One of 25 graded winners for Twirling Candy, Ag Bullet is the stallion's 10th winner at the top level.
Noble Grey has a 2-year-old colt by Mendelssohn, who sold for $32,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton September California Yearling Sale, and she produced a filly by Army Mule this year. The mare was purchased by Elena and Hollie Crim's H & E Ranch for $70,000 at the 2013 Keeneland January sale.
The winner's third dam, Peaceful Intention, produced the dam of graded winners Abraaj and Leelanau, as well as graded winner How About Now, the dam of graded winner Lovely Lil.
Sunday, Saratoga
JAIPUR S.-GI, $500,000, Saratoga, 6-8, 3yo/up, 5 1/2fT, 1:03.62, gd.
1–AG BULLET, 121, m, 5, by Twirling Candy
1st Dam: Noble Grey, by Forestry
2nd Dam: Never Fail, by Holy Bull
3rd Dam: Peaceful Intention, by Hold Your Peace
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($30,000 Wlg '20 KEENOV; $220,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP). O-Calvin Nguyen and Joey C. Tran; B-H & E Ranch (KY); T-Richard Baltas; J-John R. Velazquez. $275,000. Lifetime Record: 14-7-0-2, $1,616,328. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–My Boy Prince, 120, g, 4, Cairo Prince–Hopping Not Hoping, by Silent Name (Jpn). (C$115,000 Ylg '22 CANSEP). O-Gary Barber; B-Murray Graham Smith (ON); T-Mark E. Casse. $100,000.
3–Alogon, 120, g, 6, California Chrome–Scamper, by Scat Daddy. 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O/B-Charles T. Matses (KY); T-Edward T. Allard. $60,000.
Margins: 2, HD, NO. Odds: 2.85, 6.00, 12.20.
Also Ran: Arzak, Coppola, Extendo, Think Big, Our Shot, Bold Journey, Vinsanity.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
AG BULLET proves she's got firepower. 🔥
The only mare in the field takes down the boys to earn her first Grade 1 win in the Jaipur Stakes with @ljlmvel aboard, and punches her ticket to the @BreedersCup! pic.twitter.com/UBqtF5WNSY
— Belmont Stakes (@BelmontStakes) June 8, 2025
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